The Instability of Fundamentals: The Difficulty of Distinguishing Trifles from Essentials

Abstract

IT might be supposed that as knowledge on aerodynamics increases, and the subject approximates to being an exact science, the differing views on the essential features of aeroplane design would tend to converge and something approaching a standardisation of ideas would appear. We have already to some extent arrived at this position, and to‐day any aeroplane that is not a monoplane, usually lowwing, with retractable under‐carriage, variable‐pitch airscrews, engines embedded in the plane and fitted with trailing‐edge flaps looks, to say the least, uncommon.

Citation

(1937), "The Instability of Fundamentals: The Difficulty of Distinguishing Trifles from Essentials", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 9 No. 9, pp. 231-232. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb030218